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Tag: Politics and Policy

The DOD’s second Open Technology Development Roadmap has been released: “Open Technology Development: Lessons Learned and Best Practices“. It’s a handbook for using and making open source in the DOD and the US Government, sponsored by the Secretary of Defense. It provides practical advice on policy, procurement, and good community governance, all under a Creative […]

I’m setting up a new computer. I get through the registration screens, install my software, change my wallpaper, and everything’s working fine. I’m left, though, with a lingering, uneasy feeling: I don’t know if this machine is secure. I’m a computer guy, so I know how to set up strong passwords and firewalls, but I’m […]

So 19 months into the Open Government Directive, we seem to have a backlash. The government has spent millions of dollars collecting, organizing, and cataloging its data to make it more available to the public. An unprecedented effort. Some of this data is frivolous, some of it is valuable, but I think we can all agree […]

I think I was a surprised as anyone when I heard that Larry Lessig was stepping away from Creative Commons. It seemed like a sudden change of direction, because Lessig has been a vocal advocate for freedom and choice for so many years. But as I hear Lessig describe his journey from Creative Commons to Change Congress, I’m reminded of Daniel Okrent’s history of the prohibition movement in the United States, “Last Call”.

In the book, Okrent reminds us that the prohibitionists needed major structural reforms in American politics before they could eliminate alcohol in the United States. The movement was composed and motivated largely by women, who at the time could not vote. The reforms they sought would only arrive once women were given the franchise. Also, the Federal government relied on alcohol taxes for 30%(!) of annual Federal revenue. So suffrage, the income tax, and prohibition are intimately acquainted even if they are, on their face, unrelated.

Susan B. Anthony was a passionate temperance advocate before she became the most famous suffragist. She left the temperance movement, in part, because temperance had many advocates, while suffrage desperately needed leadership. In this light, Lessig’s newest project suddenly makes perfect sense.

Brian Purchia of Burson-Marsteller has a post over on GovFresh about the value of open source to unions. His argument pivots on cost-savings. I think you could make a more expansive argument that includes risk mitigation and innovation, but describing the advantage to unions is an interesting angle I hadn’t seen before. I noticed that […]